The people of Michigan's 8th Congressional District deserve better than Mike Rogers.

Here is where the change begins.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

About Face!

In today's Press & Argus, Mike Rogers has now decided that he supports benchmarks for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. Though he's still leery of an actual deadline for troop withdrawal,

A series of positive benchmarks -- with definite time frames for their achievement -- could prod the Iraqi government to improve its performance and the security situation in the country, he said.

Hmmm... Congressional candidate Jim Marcinkowski thought a benchmarked withdrawal was a sound policy approach as far back as April, but Mike Rogers felt that sort of talk was defeatist. How many more U.S. servicemembers need to be killed or wounded before Mike can admit that he was wrong?

NYT columnist Bob Herbert pointed out that Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR) voted for the war, and was honest enough to admit that his support had been a mistake:

“I, for one, am at the end of my rope when it comes to supporting a policy that has our soldiers patrolling the same streets in the same way, being blown up by the same bombs day after day. That is absurd. It may even be criminal. I cannot support that anymore.”

If the U.S. is ultimately going to retreat in Iraq, he said, “I would rather do it sooner than later. I am looking for answers, but the current course is unacceptable to this senator.”

Here at home, as U.S. troops and Iraqi citizens continue to die, Rogers is still looking for a "unified position" that everyone can "get behind."

"I think we've got to find a unified position... we will do more to solve the problem if we do it with one voice."

Let's review: 63% of Americans think the war is a mistake. That's a higher percentage than Bush received in 2000, or 2004. In fact, that's a higher percentage than Mike Rogers received last month.Sounds pretty unified to me...

Is that hot air being blown up my ass? Nope, it's just Mike Rodgers' big mouth. Weren't troops supposed to be significantly drawn down to less than 100k by now? Rodgers, like the rest of the republican party is trying to find a way to pivot the Iraq diaster onto us democrats. You broke, you bought it, surge and all